The present invention relates to measuring relative fractions of liquid and vapor in mixed phase fluid flow, such as occurs in boiling water, non-boiling turbulent flows, fluidized bed experiments, water-gas mixing analysis, nuclear plant cooling and other diverse application.
The prior art includes a number of mechanical and electrical approaches to the problem limited principally in their failure to deal effectively with the non-homogeneous character of the vapor and liquid mixture across the cross section of a conduit in most practical applications.
It is an important object of the invention to provide vapor and liquid fraction measurement in a mixed flow dealing effectively with the non-homogeneous cross-section profile of such mixtures.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a long-lived apparatus dealing with environmental conditions such as corrosive fluids, cavitation, thermal expansion and contraction and pressure in an effective way providing long life operation reliably.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a simple construction making a minimal disturbance on the system being measured consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to screen out sources of spurious reading consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to accommodate both measurement of relevant fluid characteristics consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an economical device consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.